


Lights Out

by HangedFaun



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 19:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7235725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HangedFaun/pseuds/HangedFaun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>”We are not afraid of the dark. We are afraid of what is in it”.<br/>Humanity should be grateful to nature for the the inability to see in the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights Out

  I was only two years old. I was sitting on a chair in the living room, watching cartoons on the TV screen, while my parents chatted with their friends in the kitchen. It was a peaceful evening, slowly transiting into night. Everything felt so calming...  
  Lights went out. The bright room lost it’s colours and the picture on the TV screen instantly disappeared. I was left in complete darkness. Did you ever have this fear that everything can perish in a second? A man standing in front of you - blink, and he is gone. You stand on the grass, having a walk in the park, surrounded by mighty trees, just enjoying the fresh air and the birds singing - you sneeze and realize that it all never was there. It is creepy when you think about it. Yet there is one thing that makes the situation even more anxious - and it’s not the fact that something that was just near you has vanquished, no. A simple question arises: if it’s all gone, what is there now? And most importantly: do you really wish to be there?  
  It got cold in seconds. The toys in the corner of the room, my mother and father in the family photographs, the cartoon characters that amused me just now - they all seized their existence and I was left alone. Where? I don’t know. I won’t ever want to know. The two year old me has cried a lot, since there was nothing he could do. I remember finding myself on my mother’s lap, looking at her sweet face with my wet eyes.  
  I couldn’t fall asleep that night. I wanted to forget what has happened.  
\- Mummy, somebody looked at me.  
\- Darling, you have imagined it.  
  _The walls have eyes._  
\- Mummy, somebody knocked at the window.  
\- Darling, it was just a tree branch.  
  _Trees don’t grow upside down._  
\- Mummy, someone grabbed my hand.  
\- Darling, you just got scared.  
  _I see the scars left by the beast to this day._  
\- Mummy, what took you so long to come?  
\- Darling, you shouldn’t have locked the door. We were forced to search for the key.  
  I don’t like to think of the events that took place that night. But it’s hard to forget such things. I got really anxious as child. Only a couple of years later I understood what has haunted me - the door wasn’t locked when the lights were on.

***

\- Darling, let us do it without the night light today? It won’t be that scary, I promise.  
  Sofia. A beautiful woman with long light hair, sky blue eyes, dark skin and a dazzling smile. If the day light ever took human form, it was her. We met in third grade. She was the only one who believed my story of that dreadful night, while the others simply laughed. She listened to what I had to say, nodded in agreement, calmed me down and did whatever it took her so I can sleep peacefully at night.  
  After the events of that night, I could only sleep with my mother in a lit room. Back then I already forgot what it meant to have a good night’s sleep. How is it possible for a third grader to have his eye sockets in the same condition as asylum patients? I was such a phenomenon what made me a punching bag for the kids in school, a funny animal for all the passers by and a disturbing child for the teachers. They even once called my parents to school to discuss the matter of possible home abuse. Gladly, that stupid chatter of theirs quickly ended but nothing has stopped...  
  Never could I play with other kids on the streets. As the first signs of twilight came, I ran home as fast as I could, lit all the rooms and waited for the night to come. In cases of a power surge, my parents quickly solved the problem and punished me for wasting electricity. When they were nearby, the walls closed their eyes and trees grew as normal. But the worst came during winter. The sun left earlier and my life became just school, which wasn’t a pleasant experience in the first place, and home, where the true nightmares were. I was scared that night will fall suddenly. Once I played with the boys from the yard, when the twilight came. I don’t remember the boys being there afterwards. They simply vanished. And I ran home in tears, while the tree roots chased me and the world around distorted. Can’t say how I got home, I woke up in my mothers arms, weeping.  
  Light came to my existence when Sofia invited me to a sleepover. It seemed like a horrible idea to me since I could only fall asleep at home in a fully lit room. But she insisted on it so confidently, I couldn’t resist. We sat together in her room. And it somehow reminded me of my own. We talked, listened to music, watched cartoons and I can’t remember when I felt so comforted in my life. My attention was drawn by the window and I felt immense fear because of the realization it is dark outside. In panic, I started to whimper and curled in a ball. Sofia watched me sadly and, in a matter of minutes, hugged me. Her touch brought a feeling of easiness as if there is nothing to be scared about. A part of knew that it’s just an illusion but I managed to drift asleep and wake up with a feeling of happiness. I couldn’t believe it that much, I even asked Sofia if she is an angel to which she simply giggled and blushed. Maybe it was only a compliment for her but she really did become an angel that guided me through my personal hell.  
  We started living together when school was over. I started to forget the events which turned my life into a living nightmare as if it was really only a bad dream. Twilight and dark corridors were much easier for me to handle. And I stopped taking a flash light wherever I went. Though, I still couldn’t fall asleep without a night light for which Sofia teased me kindly. But in some time it started irritating her. And I understand. For an angel that draws light only with her smile, a night light is just a burden to carry.  
\- Well, are you ready?  
  I trembled in fear but the moment I looked in her eyes, shining as bright as the sun at noon, I started to believe that she will protect me. And so I made my decision...  
  I woke up at night. Moonlight filled the room. I got anxious rather quickly and I wished to wake up my angel, so she can calm me with her voice. But near me lied a women with pale white skin and hair as dark as _that_ night. I prayed so she won’t open her eyes, because there was an entrance to a dimension I could never escape. It came to me that there is no moon in the sky and I wanted to simply run away. Yet my legs became paralyzed as if something held them, something freezing cold. The walls brought themselves to life. Trees slowly took root into the room, shattering the windows... She woke up. I closed my eyes shut and tried to scream but leaves from the trees have silenced me. She grabbed my face, burning it with ice, I could feel it. The roots started growing on my face, tightening the skin, forcing me to open my eyes and see...  
  The night light turned on. Sofia grabbed me with her arms, hot as a calm desert day and caressed me, while I watched her and cried in agony.  
\- I’m sorry, - she said.  
  And so it was until dawn, when the sun filled the room with it’s light. But the only thing I could think of is that the day won’t last forever...


End file.
